Olympics Trials Easily Win Night For NBC

NBC dominated Friday evening with NBC Sports’ coverage of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, which swept the night’s six half-hours in 18-49 demos and total viewers and represented the No. 1 and No. 2 shows of the night in both categories. From 8-9 p.m. ET, the U.S. Olympic Team Trials: Swimming Finals (1.5/6 in adults 18-49, 6.0 million viewers overall) delivered NBC’s highest 18-49 rating in the time period since October 8, 2010 (Dateline NBC, 1.6) and biggest overall viewer total in the hour since March 2, 2012 (Who Do You Think You Are?, 7.369 million). U.S. Olympic Team Trials led the hour among repeats on ABC (Shark Tank 1.1/5 in 18-49, 4.23 million total viewers) CBS (Undercover Boss, 1.0/4, 4.74 million) and Fox (House, 0.5/2, 1.84 million) in all key ratings categories – adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, as well as total viewers.

From 9-11 p.m. ET the Gymnastics Women’s Qualifying trials (2.3/8 in 18-49, 7.6 million viewers overall) generated the highest 18-49 rating for NBC in the time period since February 26, 2010 (Vancouver Winter Olympics, 6.9) and biggest overall viewership in the slot since March 25, 2011 (Dateline, 8.150 million). The U.S. Olympic Team Trials led the time period beating ABC (20/20, 1.0/4, 4.26 million) CBS (CSI:NY, 0.8/3, 4.66 million) and Fox (Bones, 0.5/2, 2.14 million) in all key ratings categories – adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, plus total viewers. In the 10-11PM hour NBC also surpassed ABC (20/20, 1.1/4, 4.5 million) and a CBS repeat (Blue Bloods, 0.7/2, 5.2 million).

The 9-11 p.m. ET gymnastics coverage delivered the biggest audience for an Olympic-Trials telecast since August 20, 2000 (11.3 million) and the highest 18-49 rating for coverage of the Olympic Trials since July 11, 2004 (2.3). In the 10:30 lead-in to local news, the Gymnastics Women’s Qualifying trials delivered a 75% margin of victory in the key news demo of adults 25-54 (with a 2.8 rating vs. the 1.6 for ABC’s second-place 20/20). Olympic Trials also led at 10:30 in adults 18-49, total viewers and all other key categories.

In late-night metered-market households Friday night (with 8 of 56 metered markets delayed, including the Local People Meter markets of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.), household results were: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 2.5/6; CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman, 1.9/5 with an encore; and ABC’s combo of Nightline, 3.1/7; and Jimmy Kimmel Live, 1.3/4 with an encore. In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, adult 18-49 results were The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 0.8/3; Late Show, 0.4/2 with an encore; Nightline,0.9/4; and Jimmy Kimmel Live, 0.5/2 with an encore. At 12:35 AM, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (1.4/4 in metered-market households) beat CBS’ Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (1.0/3). In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, Late Night (0.4/2 in 18-49) topped Late Late Show (0.3/2).